StairMaster gets a makeover

This ain't your grandma's StairMaster.

Core Fitness LLC recently introduced the StairMaster StepMill 3, the brand's most compact stair climber. It's preprogrammed with customizable workouts, a heart rate monitor and the ability to dole out feedback post-workout. The sleekly redesigned machine can fit in a home or office setting.

“High-repetition resistance training on the SM3 torches calories, increases core strength and sculpts the lower body faster and more effectively than most other fitness machines,” says Merrill Richmond, vice president of sales and marketing for StairMaster. The machine targets quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves and the core. And it guarantees a workout: A recent university study found that climbing on a StairMaster StepMill at 1 mph burned the same number of calories as running on a flat treadmill at 7 mph.